


End Before the Start

by cranesflying



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Belladolphus, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-17
Updated: 2013-01-17
Packaged: 2017-11-25 20:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/642549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranesflying/pseuds/cranesflying
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slighty AU Belladolphus drabble. A short scene between Bellatrix and Rodolphus in the aftermath of a raid gone wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End Before the Start

Her ears rang and she still spat blood when the two of them flew into the front door of their house. He was yelling something at her, but the noise in her head made him incoherent, and she simply stumbled into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. With hands sticky and red with blood, she grabbed the eyeholes of her white, featureless mask and pulled it away from her face violently, snapping the ties. Her head swam. Things went badly that evening.

She and Rod and his brother and some other Death Eater whose name she didn't care to know burnt through a muggle neighborhood until a team of Aurors finally showed. Vaguely, she remembered laughing and cursing one just as he appeared a scant seven steps from her left side. He went rigid and then limp, then hit the grass with a dull thump. Bella turned just in time to take a pair of curses to her torso, both of which knocked the air out of her on impact. The first hit her square in the sternum and sent a buzz of pain through her body like a heavy bell being struck, and then second hit her stomach from the side. She had stumbled awkwardly into Rod before she took down the second who hexed her with an onslaught of expertly cast cutting charms. Blood in streaks and drops marred the otherwise blank white mask that covered her face, and she covered her hands in his blood when she checked his body for… well, she didn't quite know. Her chest and stomach hurt, and every breath felt watery now. Everything passed in a haze of agony and an unfamiliar variety of hurt. Whatever it was, it simply made her work harder. Bella had always been a holy terror, and no one was likely to forget it.

Someone grabbed the hood that had fallen from her head and yanked her back just as the house on whose front lawn they stood exploded, knocking all in the vicinity onto the ground. More Aurors and Order members appeared a second later. She killed two more just before Rod looped an arm tightly around her stomach and apparated both of them.

Rod ripped off his own mask in much the same manner and tossed it aside as he advanced on her. Judging by the veins visible on his head and the strained lines of his neck, he was angry, and then he opened his mouth and bellowed at her again. Her addled head made no sense of it, and so in response, she growled and pitched her mask at him as hard as she could. Easily, the man deflected it with his forearm, closed the distance between the two of them and shook her shoulders forcefully. He yelled again. Bella's brow knitted and she shoved him away roughly, but that did nothing to deter him. Finally, the ringing began to subside and her brain began to make sense of her world again.

"The fuck is wrong with you!" he roared, and the pair rounded the island in the kitchen. Bella's hands on the counter left smudges of red in their wake.

"Get away from me!" she screamed back. Drops of red landed on the counter and she felt it on her chin, and with a growl, she wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. Very rarely did evenings go so badly, but very rarely did she react to such occasions in this way. Bella's incredibly mercurial behavior was the norm from the day she was old enough to scream, and her husband had quickly grown used to them. Not defeated in the slightest, he followed her as she exited the kitchen and walked towards their bedroom.

"Bella, come  _on_!" Frustration laced in his voice and she glowered at him a moment before she stripped herself of the black, bloodspattered jacket and began to toe her way out of her boots. He started to do the same; they were both pretty covered at this point. "I couldn't get you to bloody stop - you must've taken down four of the fuckers even after we were told to get out. You were  _screaming_!"

Next came her shirt. She pretended not to hear him as she headed towards the master bathroom adjacent to their room and yanked the deep green shirt over her head. She did scream back there, but it took being told it happened for her to remember. The curses she threw after it were lightning fast and as wicked as she could possibly manage. Bella wanted to maim before she killed. Now, she said nothing. Rod threw his hands in the air and swore again as he turned away from her and started to pace as he unbuttoned his shirt.

It came back in a rush. She knew. Lips moving soundlessly, her hands shook ferociously as she clumsily unbuttoned her jeans and pushed them down to reveal blood covering the upper part of her inner thighs. Her eyes burned. Bella let her trousers slip to the floor, stood straight and stepped in front of the mirror, then ran her fingertips over the already growing bruises on her sternum and stomach from the curses she took earlier. 

"…Bella?" Rod's voice had softened and at the sound of her name, the woman turned and stared at him where he stood in the doorway. She couldn't find the words. He apparently found a few for her and continued. "What happened?"

Again, she pitched anything within grabbing distance at him - a bar of soap, her toothbrush, the ceramic soap holder, anything - until her vision blurred and her blood boiled. She wasn't mad at him. It wasn't fair - she'd only known for just shy of two weeks and managed to talk herself into being just the the tiniest bit excited three days earlier, and now… nothing. It was gone. Her hands found the smooth marble of the countertop and she steadied herself. Bella hadn't cried in years, but she threatened to do so now.

"I was  _pregnant_!" Thick silence hung between them for a beat and Rod simply gaped at her. "Six weeks!" she shrieked again, and her voice broke as she looked away and covered her mouth with a hand stained red. Her knees instantly felt weak, but she shoved her husband away when he rushed forward to steady her. When he tried again, she hit him as hard as she could and simply kept swinging until he caught her wrists in a grip so tight it hurt. She shattered against him with a wail and collapsed finally, and without a moment's hesitation, Rod drew her close and then lowered both of them to the tile floor. They sat on there for better part of the night, her nearly naked in his lap and him with his arms tightly around her and his lips pressed to the side of her head. 


End file.
